The event space at our Karlin offices was overflowing with VR enthusiasts who had come to listen to Amir talk with STRV COO Lubo Smid about what lies ahead for this virtual phenomenon. We, of course, also had our in-house Oculus Rift and HTC Vive sets out and ready to test!
With 20-plus years of research ahead of it, these are the “golden times” for VR, according to Amir, who predicts a lot more jobs will open up in the industry in the coming years. While the technology is most prevalent in the gaming sector (at least from the general public’s perspective), VR is already making in-roads in the medical field, and experts anticipate more and more companies will use it for B2C purposes.
“The hardware will have to evolve more,” Amir explained, but “I’m looking forward to how people are able to collaborate with each other.”
Amir is part of Unity’s labs group, which is experimenting on how developers can author VR content inside of VR. The game development platform’s new tool is called EditorVR and is scheduled for release later this year. “You are going to be able to use it to tweak things you have already built up,” said Amir, who has more than 12 years of experience in game development.
Following his sit-down with Lubo, Amir mingled with guests, enjoyed some beer, and talked PlayStation VR, which set to hit the market on October 13.
“It’s a really exciting moment for VR, because it’s the one place where we have a lot of potential to have a lot of VR customers. There are over 40 million PS4s out there, so even if 10 percent of those people buy the PSVR, we’ll have 4 million people who have now have VR, and it’s at the perfect price point,” said Amir, who has two headsets at home in San Francisco.
“Sony has done an excellent job at bringing over 20, maybe even 30, titles to launch with the PSVR. It’s going to be one of the strongest launches to date,” he added.
Here’s the good news, folks: Lubo has promised to get one for the office. Want to stop by and play?
Find all photos from the event here. We will be hosting more cool events like VR Night in the coming weeks. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter or sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on what’s going on at STRV!
